March: I'm back! current growth and an overview of how things were protected

Sorry for being a rubbish blogger....my blogging is a bit like the garden in that as the year begins and plods on there is loads to do and everything is exciting. The season then reaches its climax and I sit back and enjoy it, and then as winter extends its icy grasp I hide inside and put off thoughts of doing anything until the new year.

Suddenly it is once again sunny and things are growing again, including about a million sycamore seedlings. Being outside with the sun warming your soul and earth between your fingers is an amazing tonic and the oomph has returned. In this post a few pictures of how things are at the moment and a bit of an overview of how the more tender things have been looked after

So much of what makes the garden is annual growth and things are pretty desolate at the moment

One thing looking amazing is giant fennel....a bit of an experiment and something I grew from seed. They emerge at this time of the year as a huge frothy mound and then die as summer starts. Below the Tetrapanax starts to re-emerge

This is the sparce terrace with the Schleffera keeping us entertained. The big Musa sikkimensis are still wrapped for winter in fleece and covered by a piece of bubblewrap, very loosely, to keep the rain off. In the corner is a simple plastic greenhouse to keep the worst of the cold off in a very sheltered part of the sunken terrace. 

Although it is incredibly moist due to rain draining into the area and huge amounts of condensation, things have survived.

The big experiment this year is can I keep the red ensete in pots with leaves and roots and will this get them started quicker than the ones which I chop all the leaves and roots off. This is inspired by my neighbour whom just left his out all winter unprotected and it survived! Amazingly so far they all look fine. 

This is the Ensete whose leaves and roots were removed....looking very sorry for themselves, but alive!

The other place I keep things is in a covered sideway....you can see the red Ensete and also a tree tomato which is still in leaf. Sadly one of the tropical musas (bordeleon) seems to have rotted at the base